Going Underground

Jonathan Roper Investigates Series, Book 1

By: Michael Leese

Narrated by: Michael Healy

Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

A spate of murders, deranged scientists, and heavily armed mercenaries - little wonder there's a state of panic at Scotland Yard.

Chief Inspector Brian Hooley has a plan, and it won't make him popular. He wants to bring back autistic detective Jonathan Roper. Currently suspended on misconduct charges, his condition, coupled with a relentless work ethic, makes Roper a unique investigator with observational skills that allow him to see what others miss. But he is also a complex man who doesn't get social boundaries, and plenty of his colleagues just don't like him.

Hooley doesn't care about that. He knows Roper is the one to make a difference.

What follows is a roller-coaster ride, with the veteran cop about to find out what it's like to be the subject of Roper's unflinching gaze as his personal habits face intense scrutiny.

This special relationship is warmly observed and provides a comic contrast to a darkly compelling story where the pair is pushed to the limit.

©2017 Michael Leese (P)2018 Tantor

Unexpected Likable Thriller

Jonathan Roper is autistic and it's really hard for him to make friends, but I like how he assembled the strange clues to make sense of this crime. With Detective Chief Inspector Brian Hooley of Scotland Yard, helping Jonathan they are a good team and sometimes a difficult colleague.
I wasn't sure if I would like to listen to this audiobook but gave it a chance and I'm glad I did.

Interest, but complicated

Enjoyable reading with an unusual twist. Roper is very well developed character and the author used his skills well.

Awesome

Loved the story and the relationship between the main characters. A relationship that requires work can be good for you.

intelligent

Very good
Excellent in most aspects of the way autism affects the everyday personal interactions . Lesson to be learned by all tolerance and acceptance.

Great mystery and characters

I am fascinated with the way Roper works out the clues. Holley deserves a medal for his patience. Complicated story line well done.

Fascinating description of Roper's process. Solution was not obvious which makes it fun.

The sing-song style of the performer is distracting. I really enjoyed the story and will look for more in this series.

Hated the end

This narrator sounded too AI for my liking. Abrupt reading and too long of a pause at the end of each sentence even at 1.1 speed.I got over that because it was an interesting premise. Obviously, I'm listening to a murder mystery but I was really unhappy with how violently disturbing the last few chapters became. I guess it goes with the territory so my fault. But a heads up if anybody would rather avoid disgusting and disturbing narrative. 

Definitely not for me

This was definitely a one-star listen for me. As an avid reader/writer, I found it to be poorly written with simplistic characterizations and dialog. The story was told, not shown. The entire book was structured to present a series of situations that showcase various autistic traits demonstrated by the main character Roper. The plot became mere window dressing.

As someone who is actually autistic, I found a collection of stereotypical male-presenting autistic traits, a neurotypical viewpoint that the goal for autistic people is to learn to modify their behavior in order to make the neurotypical people around them more comfortable, and the infantilization of Roper by his superiors in the police department, who seem to be cast as surrogate parents, even though Roper is a mentally competent adult who lives independently.

Sigh.

As both reader and autistic woman, this is such a disrespectful effort on the author's part that I can't recommend this book to anyone. If you are unfamiliar with autism and are interested, please spend the time you would invest in this book to do some reading of contemporary writing by actually autistic people. If you've read the book, please do not take this representation as an accurate picture of autism.

I have enjoyed other books narrated by Mr. Healy, but this one, perhaps because of the writing, sounded as if he were reading to a group of children attending a library story hour.

Edited to add: Lest anyone feel I am being too harsh on a self-published author, Mr. Leese explains that Roper "cannot tell a lie" because his grandmother told him if he did, his nose would grow like Pinocchio's, and Roper took that to heart. I don't know if this was meant as serious representation or just a bid for cheap laughs, but it does nothing to serve the autistic community.

Terrible sound quality.

I couldn’t listen to it. Yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy uuuu uuuu uuuu uuuu uuuu kkkk non jolly B.B. he kk

Couldn’t finish

Story might have been good but narration was so bad I couldn’t get through it.